Students collect food for Thanksgiving meals

Swansboro High School students pile up boxes for classmate Tyler Summer, who helped load a truck full of canned goods and nonperishable food items the school collected for the local food pantry.

Jannette Pippin/The Daily News

By JANNETTE PIPPIN - Daily News Staff

Published: Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 08:21 AM.

SWANSBORO — The Hem was on the receiving end Friday as Swansboro students filled one of its trucks with canned and boxed goods for its food pantry.

White Oak Ecumenical Outreach Ministries, which runs the Hem of His Garment thrift shop and provides assistance for Swansboro-area families in need, is well known for its service to the community, and students from the elementary to the high school are stepping up to give back.

“Even though we’re teens, we have the power to help others,” SwansboroHigh Schoolsenior Morgan Sheehan said.

SwansboroHigh Schoolcompleted its annual Cares and Shares program by loading boxes full of more than 11,400 canned goods and non-perishable food items into a truck for the Hem.

Over the past 10 years, the school has donated more than 100,000 cans to the organization’s food pantry.

Sisters Ellen Sheehan and Debra Olson, both teachers at the school, organize the Cares and Shares project at the school. First period classes compete over a five-day period to see which class can collect the most food items. The top 10 classes are rewarded with a celebration program and then load up a waiting truck with their donation.

“It gets everyone involved and reaches out to the community,” Olson said.

SWANSBORO — The Hem was on the receiving end Friday as Swansboro students filled one of its trucks with canned and boxed goods for its food pantry.

White Oak Ecumenical Outreach Ministries, which runs the Hem of His Garment thrift shop and provides assistance for Swansboro-area families in need, is well known for its service to the community, and students from the elementary to the high school are stepping up to give back.

“Even though we’re teens, we have the power to help others,” SwansboroHigh Schoolsenior Morgan Sheehan said.

SwansboroHigh Schoolcompleted its annual Cares and Shares program by loading boxes full of more than 11,400 canned goods and non-perishable food items into a truck for the Hem.

Over the past 10 years, the school has donated more than 100,000 cans to the organization’s food pantry.

Sisters Ellen Sheehan and Debra Olson, both teachers at the school, organize the Cares and Shares project at the school. First period classes compete over a five-day period to see which class can collect the most food items. The top 10 classes are rewarded with a celebration program and then load up a waiting truck with their donation.

“It gets everyone involved and reaches out to the community,” Olson said.

Clete Ketner, food pantry manager for the Hem, watched as students loaded up the food they had collected.

With the holidays approaching, Ketner said they are helping fill a great need. In addition to its regular assistance to families, the Hem also provides both Thanksgiving and Christmas meal boxes.

The Thanksgiving meals were ready to go out today, Nov. 17, to 225 area families, and the donations from the schools will help to replenish their stock and save available funds.

“It all helps,” Ketner said.

Ketner said all the schools in the Swansboro area, including White Oak Elementary and CroatanHigh Schoolin western CarteretCounty, do food drives for the Hem.

The next stop after the high school was SwansboroMiddle School.

All the homerooms at the middle school competed this week to see who could collect the most cans per student.

And the students made strong final-day showing, doubling the number of can collected earlier in the week. At final count, the school had collected 1,900 cans for the Hem.

“They came in big on the last day,” said teacher Christine Ricci, 8th grade advisor for the Student Council, which does the food drive each year.

Queens Creek Elementary in Swansboro and Sand Ridge Elementary are just beginning their food drives for the Hem.

Bryan Smith, guidance counselor at Queens Creek Elementary, said the school is 600 cans toward its goal, which it raised this year to 1,500 cans. Smith said the school does a number of community projects and people are always ready to help.

“I think this community is very involved and always ready to give,” he said.

Sand Ridge Elementary will begin its annual food drive next week and divides what it collects between the Hem and Christmas Cheer. Swansboro Elementary does a food drive for the Hem on the last week before the school goes on Christmas break.